Unholy Shepherd by Robert Christian (rooftoppers txt) 📕

that I loved my husband, and I couldn’t keep lying to him. I was so confident that I could get in, say what I needed to, and get out. But he just kissed me, and I completely lost my head. It was almost a half an hour before I was back at the car, and Benny was gone.”

Tasha’s head fell back into her hands, and she began to sob uncontrollably. “I was so scared for people to find out. I just remember thinking, no one could know that I had lost my son while I was with another man. So I drove over to the grocery store, ran in to get a protein bar, went outside, ran back in like I did, and begged them to call the police. You know, so people would think it really happened there.”

Manny couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He knew he should try to be sympathetic, but all he could think of was that every step taken to find the boy since yesterday was taken from the wrong place. Despite his best efforts, the fury of it erupted from him all at once.

“So basically, you’re telling me that the last day and a half of investigation was a waste, because you couldn’t tell the cops the truth? And why? Because you were too afraid your husband would find out?”

“You think I don’t know all of that?” she shouted back, jumping up from her chair and frantically pacing back and forth in front of him. “You think it doesn’t make me sick? You think I haven’t punished myself over this every minute of the day? And not just because Benny got taken and I let it happen! No! I’ve been killing myself over this since it started!” Tasha turned her back to Manny and began to sob again.

He stood firm, waiting patiently for her to stop. He could sense she was going to continue talking as soon as she had mastered herself. The dam had broken in her mind, and there was more that she was going to say, if he could be patient.

“I’ve done everything I could think of to try and deal with this,” she said. Her breath came shakily as she continued to stare at the wall. Then, suddenly, she laughed bitterly. “You know, I even started taking Benny to St. Mary’s on the Sundays that Ben had to work. Hell, I even went to confession a few days ago to try and make myself feel better about all this. You know, maybe, if I knew God would forgive me, then I could get Ben to forgive me, or something.”

The sound of her words struck Manny in the chest. “What did you just say?”

“I know, it’s stupid,” she said, turning around and wiping her eyes. “I mean, me, for fuck’s sake. At church! Can you imagine? Almost thirty years on this planet, and the only thing that can get me through those doors is banging another man. You think there’s anything that I can do to make this better?”

“For your marriage,” he said, “I don’t know. For Benny, you might have just given me what I need to find him.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Just answer me this, no matter how odd it sounds. Did you have Benny baptized?”

Tasha shook her head slowly.

“Right, stay here for a minute. I’ll have Collins come grab you and walk you to your car.”

Manny left the room and walked down the hallway. He turned the corner, looking for Maureen. All he found was Collins sitting at the front desk.

“Where is she?” Manny asked the young officer.

“She came through about a minute ago,” he said pointing to the front door. “Said you’d be working late, and that she was going to head out to get you guys a snack.”

Manny stood for a moment, deciding on his next move. “Jack,” he said, motioning Officer Collins closer. “Do you have the front desk computer up and running?”

“Yeah.”

“All right, I’m going to borrow it for a few minutes. Can you go into the interview room and walk Mrs. Naismith to her car? Please?”

Collins nodded.

Manny could tell that his orders were keeping the kid on his toes but at the moment, that was to his advantage. It prevented him from questioning why he could get away with commandeering a department computer when he was technically not working the case.

As Collins walked off toward the interview room, Manny took a seat behind the front desk and found the website he was looking for. It had all come together in the interview room. He now knew how the killer was choosing his victims, and that told him who was responsible. But now he needed to find the man.

Manny scrolled through his own phone and found the number he needed. The son-of-a-bitch had better answer, he thought as he hit the dial button. He’d call all night if he had to.

THIRTY-SIX

Maureen felt as though her heart would leap out of her chest at any moment as she approached the rectory. From the moment she’d silently poked her head into the interview room and heard the end of Tasha Naismith’s confession, her mind had been nothing but a blur. She had run home as fast as she could, grabbed Manny’s backup service pistol from where she had hidden it, and came here. The church now was the only thing that tied it all together, which meant all signs pointed to its priest as the perpetrator. The one clear thought in her head was that if she somehow could stop Father Patrick, maybe she would draw even with the universe, and the nightmares, the hallucinations—everything—would stop. She reached around her back to make sure the old Browning was secure in her waistband and covered by her shirt.

The old priest was painfully slow in coming to the door. It seemed like an eternity had passed since she rang the doorbell. She stood, fidgeting and unsure of what she would say when the door opened. Would she